A Sound Start: Phonemic Awareness Lessons for Reading Success. Solving Problems in the Teaching of Literacy.

McCormick, Christine E.; Throneburg, Rebecca N.; Smitley, Jean M.

Intended as a resource for any teacher who wants to include explicit phonemic awareness instruction in an early reading program, this book provides three separate sets of phonemic awareness lessons, complete with scripted directions, reproducible learning materials, and assessment tools. Incorporating a variety of activities, each set of lessons in the book is field-tested and research-based. The book gives teachers a choice of developmentally sequenced lessons for the whole class and small groups, more intensive lessons for children struggling with phonemic awareness, and class lessons on the consonant phonemes to help children hear and process the sounds of American English. The book's lesson sets can be used independently or in combination with each other, and can be adapted to meet the needs of specific classes. The book is divided into the following chapters: (1) Phonemic Awareness: An Introduction; (2) Introduction to the Whole-Class and Small-Group Lessons; (3) The Whole-Class and Small-Group Lessons; (4) Individualized Instruction in Phonemic Awareness; (5) Individualized Lessons; and (6) Phoneme Characteristics and Lessons. An appendix lists books, materials, and alternative books for each of the 20 class lessons. (NKA)